Builder Barry Swenson believed in struggling San Jose, Santa Cruz downtowns

Barry Swenson s extraordinary vision and special genius for deal-making helped transform San Jose s skyline and rebuild downtown Santa Cruz after the devastating earthquake when majority developers were walking away Nobody did it like Barry Swenson ever explained Mark Ritchie of Ritchie Commercial real estate No one had a broader influence on such diverse things construction management enhancement ownership and every category office retail industrial It s just incredible Swenson who survived a major stroke nearly a decade ago as well as a small plane crash on his way back from his family ranch on the east side of Mt Hamilton years before that died Saturday at the age of The blue Swenson banners suspended from cyclone fences on commercial construction projects are ubiquitous around the Bay Area And in the Santa Cruz retail area once devastated by the Loma Prieta earthquake Swenson s name still shines on brass plates mounted by the City Council listing the names of those responsible for its recovery There are plaques with Barry Swenson s name on them all the way up and down Pacific Avenue and side streets commented Mike Rotkin the mayor of Santa Cruz in the years after the earthquake He was willing to put his money where his mouth was If you didn t have people like Barry Swenson we d likely still be facing a devastated downtown and I think that s a fair report As part of the Santa Cruz restoration the company rebuilt the Palomar Hotel and later the Dream Inn There s not a lot of love for developers generally in Santa Cruz Rotkin noted and Swenson had a mixed relationship with unions But when he restored the historic La Bahia Hotel along the coast he was willing to go up to almost union labor on the project if they were willing to backing the project Rotkin revealed I ve been a union activist all my life and Barry was I thought more reasonable than the unions on that particular issue because he really was somebody who requested to get the job done The San Jose company known only as Swenson was founded over a century ago by his grandfather Carl N Swenson who built the historic De Anza Hotel on Santa Clara Street in San Jose in Decades later after working for his father Cliff Swenson Barry Swenson restored it Over the years he turned what had been a reputable general contracting company into an award-winning design-build evolution company It is now run by Barry s son Affair Swenson who marks the fourth-generation Swenson to run the company In the s and s as downtown emptied for the suburbs Swenson s company was there to build the now-shuttered former City Hall a half mile north of downtown on N First Street and later the former Mercury News headquarters off Brokaw Road since replaced by a hardware company But Swenson s headquarters remained downtown and still maintains its offices at N First Street The company acquired numerous buildings on the east of First Street and redeveloped them over the years Former San Jose Mayor Tom McEnery worked with Swenson to build San Pedro Square into a dining and entertainment venue and stated Swenson was a stalwart believer in the city s downtown where a new City Hall later returned in and the Mercury News followed in He and his dad invariably had a lot of confidence in downtown San Jose and believe me there were not a large number of people who continued to invest their own money in downtown noted McEnery whose family also stretches back generations in San Jose Chuck Toeniskoetter who worked with Swenson in the s before starting his own advancement company admired how he grew the family business into a real estate evolution empire He was there to do good deals and do engaging deals Toeniskoetter noted He loved negotiating he loved working with clients I learned more from him than I can tell you in those days He was the master Swenson amassed a vast empire of land holdings from New Zealand to Alturas in Northern California including his beloved family ranch in the Isabel Valley in the far reaches of Santa Clara County where he had the primary bedroom designed so he could roll his bed out a sliding glass door onto a deck so he could sleep under the stars He invited his employees and their families for annual fishing derbies often offering them trips in small private planes instead of driving for nearly two hours Several decades ago however on a freezing morning Swenson and good friend and pilot Don Huntley took off in Huntley s single-engine plane on the ranch s private airstrip close to the ranch house Swenson had poured hot tea on the windshield to defrost it Huntley noted but it froze over once the plane began to take flight I couldn t see where I was going Huntley noted so I opted to ditch the plane because I didn t want to go over rough country with poor visibility They crash landed expeditiously and close to the runway he declared and along with a third tourist they got beat up a little bit Swenson injured his back and staggered back to the ranch house to call his son for a helicopter rescue It was not an easy walk Huntley explained It took him a while to heal up They remained close friends for the rest of Swenson s life what might have been another years Huntley disclosed and they continued to fly together to Mexico and beyond He was a great guy and he played fair Huntley commented Bob Staedler who met Swenson when he worked at the San Jose Redevelopment Agency in the s reported the ranch way of life permeated Swenson s persona back in San Jose He had the cowboy hat He had the swagger He had the aw shucks ' Staedler reported He was just such a great business person McEnery noted that like all old-time San Jose families the Swenson company suffered ups and downs with the construction market system It wasn t just one wonderful ride to prosperity McEnery announced Things were tough in San Jose But the message in that family is they got knocked around but they never gave up and they put their businesses back together